Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Recycling and using the "leftovers" of fission
Date: Oct 17, 12:55 pm
Poster: Neil

On Oct 17, 12:55 pm, Neil wrote:

>It would be great to see fusion workout even 10% as well as fission. Of course, fission has the black eye from a waste storage/disposal standpoint and the groin kick of TMI and Chernobyl. This, in spite of countless millions of low cost, non-polluting, megawatts of safe power produced since the 50's.
>

While the idea has been posed periodically by others, I think even yourself, it will be raised again for others: What if a fusor is designed to use neutron-stripping and related processes to convert long-lived nuclear waste, including depleted uranium from the leftovers of the initial enrichment process, by periodically convert small amounts of the materials to short-lived materials and just collect the energy released. This way the only time the fusor needs to be fired is when the short-lived materials dies down. This way you can effectively have a COP far higher than either a pure fission plant or a fusion system while having far greater control over the radiation rate by how much you convert at any one time, and you are only using the "junk" that no one wants anyway.